Lesser Letters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Zelos

Zelos is the Greek word for dedication, eagerness and rivalry, and he personifies these character traits. Likewise his brother Kratos personifies strength, as 'kratos' is the Greek word for strength or power. Zelos' sisters Nike (victory) and Bia (force) complete the guard of Zeus' throne.

The father of Zelos was the Titan Pallas, and his mother was Styx, the goddess of one of the rivers of the underworld. Zelos would also be related to Eris, the goddess of discord and strife.

Zephyros is the name for the mild west wind. Zagreus is a deity about whom only a few text fragments still exist. A son of one of the great Olympians (according to some sources, Zagreus' father was Zeus, other sources mention Hades), Zagreus fulfils a shady role in the Underworld.

Zeuxippe is the name of several less known women. One of them was married to the river god Eridanos, another was married to the legendary Atheninan king Pandion. Another Zeuxippe was married to Sicyon, the first king of the eponymous Peloponnesian city near Corinth. There is also a Zeuxippe who was married to Antiphates, the son of a soothsayer from Argos. And the last Zeuxippe I found would have had a love affair with Apollo.

Answer: Hebe

Hebe was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She served nectar and ambrosia to the Olympians until she wed Heracles, and then her role as cupbearer was assumed by the young man Ganymede. For those who wonder about the orthography, her name is written in Greek capitals as 'HBH - where the apostrophe indicates aspiration of the first vowel (sounding like an H in English), and the two vowels are etas - to be pronounced as the first e in the French word "être".

In art Hebe is usually depicted with a (white) long, flowing dress, a garland of flowers in the hair, and bearing a (golden) cup, sometimes with a similar jug for the nectar. During the second half of the Eighteenth century, many French noblewomen fancied appearing in public in this particular fashion, called "en Hébé". Numerous artists have depicted French noble women "en Hébé", even Marie-Antoinette (after she married Louis XVI but before he ascended to the throne).

The red herrings also start with an aspirated eta. In Greek capitals these would be written 'HDONH, 'HMEPA and 'HPA. The capital rho is written in Greek as P. Hera was of course the queen of the Olympian gods, married to Zeus and patron of marriage. Hedone was the goddess associated with pleasure - not necessarily sensual lust (as some of our contemporary philosophers may assume). Hemera is a Greek word for day, and thus she was the goddess of daytime.

Answer: Niobe

Niobe was queen of Thebes. One day when she saw the people of Thebes worshipping Leto (the mother of Apollo and Artemis), Niobe bragged that she was seven times as worthy as Leto, for having given birth to sevenfold offspring. Of course, Leto was not pleased, and Artemis and Apollo took revenge. They started hunting down all of Niobe's mortal children and killed them with their arrows. Fearing that her turn was next, Niobe fled to her birth region near Mount Sipylus (today in Turkey). The Olympic gods turned her into stone, and one of the rock formations at Mount Sipylus resembles a weeping woman, crouched and overlooking the sea.

Nemesis was the goddess of divine punishment for those who committed one of the gravest sins in Greek times: hubris, translated as the superlative of pride or arrogance. Nyx was the goddess of the night. Nètè (the Greek orthography in capitals is NHTH, so with twice an eta) was one of the three muses of the lyre as worshipped at Delphi. She has also given her name to the lowest note on the seven-stringed lyre.

Answer: Nestor

Nestor was king of Pylos, and joined the Greek troops with two of his sons, namely Thrasimedes and Antilochus. He did not participate in one of the battles himself, for he was already too old. But he frequently gave his advice, mostly after long paragraphs about his past accomplishments. After all, Nestor was one of the Argonauts, one of the hunters of the Calydonian boar, and one of the survivors of the war on the Centaurs. In the Dutch idiom, Nestor is still synonymous with the oldest member in a group. The English language has adopted the name Nestor as a venerable wise old man.

Nomos was the personification of the law. He was married to Eusebia, the personification of morality. Nycteus was one of the legendary kings of Thebes. Nessus was one of the Centaurs and ferried people over the Evenus river. When Nessus tried to rape Deianira whilst crossing the river, her husband Heracles shot Nessus with a poisoned arrow. Nessus had his posthumous revenge by convincing Deianira to collect his blood and smear it on a cloak whenever Heracles would become infaithful to her. So she did, and the cloak burned Heracles to death.

Answer: Hephaestus

Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, was thrown of the Olympus when he was still a child. The injuries sustained from this fall remained with him through eternity, and thus he was always limping around his smithy in the crater of the Etna. He crafted many remarkable utensils, including the Aegis (bronze shield for the Gods), a wheelchair for his own use, Eros' bow, and so on. One story tells how Hephaestus sent to Hera a golden throne, that had the special property that as soon Hera sat down, she could not get up again. Only Dionysus could persuade Hephaestus to set free Hera. In another story, Hephaestus threw an invisible net over his wife Aphrodite and her lover Ares, and dragged them to the Olympus - only to be awarded with Homeric laughter.

Xanthus ("the pale one") was one of the immortal horses belonging to Achilles. Chrysippus was a bastard son of Pelops, a legendary king. Chrysippus was trained to compete in the Nemean games (a somewhat less important sporting event than the Olympics), but Laius of Thebes abducted and raped him. Psyche was the personification of the mind. She fell in love with Eros.

Answer: Nike

Nike (also spelled Nikè) was one of the daughters of the Titan Pallas and the river goddess Styx. In the Titanomachy (battle between the Titans and the Olympians) she joined Zeus as his charioteer. Nike is one of the few Greek deities who was always portrayed with wings. Most of the other deities did not wear any wings in the classical period (Fifth and Fourth century BC), but Nike, Eros and Hermes (the latter one only on his helmet and sandals) kept their wings.

One of the best known Greek statues was the Nike figure found on the island Samothrace. Today you can find it in the Louvre in Paris. This statue shows a young woman with a long gown, wearing wings on her shoulders. Alas, the arms and most importantly the head are missing. It would be quite interesting to look the personification of victory in her eyes. As many Greek mythical characters, Nike also had an eptiheton ornans (flattering nickname). She was known as the "trim-ankled one". Oh, those Greeks had eyes for curious details!

The American brand of sports equipment Blue Ribbon adopted the name Nike in 1971.

Answer: Rhea

Rhea ("she who flows") was married to Chronos ("time"). Chronos was afraid one of his children would depose him, so he swallowed them whole just after birth. Some may call this tasty, but I'm of a different opinion. But Rhea got fed up with this dubious habit, and so when she gave birth to Zeus she hid him, and quickly dressed a rock in swaddles. Cronos devoured the rock, and Zeus grew up. When his time came, Zeus revolted against Cronos and made him spit out all of Zeus' siblings.

Rhadamanthys was one of the judges in the After World. When Rhadamanthys and his colleagues deemed you worthy, you were welcome in the Elysian Fields - a place of utter bliss. Otherwise you were sent to the Tartarus and submitted to everlasting punishments. Rhene was a minor nymph, mother of Saon - the first king and lawgiver of the island Samothrace. Rhapso was a very minor nymph only worshipped in Athena. As her name translates to "I sew", she was probably the patroness of seamstresses and dress makers. Some other sources attribute her a role similar to that of Clotho (one of the Moirai): stitching the life thread of a human being, as Clotho spun the same life thread.

Answer: Hygieia

All these names start with the aspirated letter upsilon, one of the "lesser letters" in this quiz.
Hygieia was one of the daughters of Asclepios (the god of medicine) and promoted cleanliness and sanitation. Her sisters were Panacea ("a cure for all"), Iaso ("I heal": the goddess of the recovery after disease), Aceso (the goddess of the healing process) and Aglaia ("the radiant": goddess of physical beauty as a symbol of health). Hygieia is usually depicted as a virgin in long robes, holding a cup in order to feeding a giant snake wrapped around her waist.

Hybris was the personification of what some call overbearing confidence, whilst others would name it unforgivable arrogance. As such it was one of the gravest sins in the Greek world, and Hybris would call Nemesis to enact revenge. Hyperion was one of the Titans. He was the father of Helios (the sun god), Selene (the moon goddess) and Eos (the rosy-fingered goddess of dawn). Hypnos was the god of sleep. His children included Morpheus (god of dreams) and Phantasos (god of imagination).

Answer: Charybdis

According to Greek myth, the Strait of Messina was guarded by two dreaded sea monsters. On the Italian side there was Scylla, while on the Sicilian side Charybdis assaulted the ships.

Scylla had a very odd body: twelve tentacles for legs, a waist girded with four or six dog heads, a "normal" head with four eyes, and six giraffish necks each equipped with a head containing three rows of sharp teeth. She would devour several sailors at once.

Charybdis, on the other side of the Strait, was a "normal" sea monster, who swallowed regularly large amounts of water and regurgitated it, thus creating whirlpools big enough to sink a ship.

Chaos was one of the first deities: the first thing to appear, soon followed by Gaia (Earth), Erebos (Dark), Nyx (night), Tartaros (the pit in the underworld) and others. Chrysothemis was the deity who installed the "golden custom", probably a harvest feast. She also was reported as the first winner of the musical contest at Delphi. Chryseis and Briseis were two Trojan noble women enslaved by the Greeks at one of their pillaging raids. Briseis ("soft of cheek") was awarded to Achilles and Chryseis to Agamemnon. But Chryseis was the daughter of one of Apollo's priests, and Apollo struck the Greek with a plague. Agamemnon was thus forced to render Chryseis her freedom, and in turn "confiscated" Briseis. Thus starts the Iliad: Agamemnon's claim on Briseis had caused an intense aversion in Achilles, who refused to fight any longer for Agamemnon.

Answer: Nymphe

The Horae is a term that was used to refer to several different groups of time divisions.

Homer wrote about three Horae: Thallo (blossom), Auxo (growth) and Carpo (harvest) - all based on the cycle of fruit trees. Hesiod also named three Horae: Dikè (justice), Eunomia (morality) and Eirene (peace). Hyginus described a third trio: Pherusa (substance), Euporie (abundance) and Orthosie (prosperity). He also combined these three trios to a set of nine hours, alternating between Homer's triad, Hesiod's triad and his own triad.
Nonnus discussed four Horae, namely the four seasons Eiar (spring), Theros (summer), Phthinoporon (fall) and Cheimon (winter).

The last set is the twelve hours of the day (from sunrise to sunset), most of them dedicated to some activity. This one starts with Auge (first dawn) and continues with Anatole (sunrise). Then follow the active hours: Mousike (music and poetry), Gymnastike (sports), Nymphe (every activity involving water: bathing, laundry...). At noon there was Mesembria (the middle of all). Then came the religious hours: Sponde (libations) and Elete (prayer). The ninth hour was Akte (evening meal and pleasure), followed by Hesperis (evening). The day concluded with Dysis (sunset) and Arktos (the dying light of dusk).

So the correct answer is Nymphe: the correct hour to take a bath or a shower, to do the laundry or to do the dishes.

Hydra was a multiple-headed water monster. Heracles fought the nine-headed Hydra of Lerna. Chloris has inspired several stories, maybe because there were different characters named Chloris. One story is about the nymph Chloris who married Zephyrus, the favourable west wind. Another story is about Chloris the daughter of Niobe, who was spared from Apollo's and Artemis' wrath. Psamate was a sea nymph (Nereid) seduced by Aiakos, the king of Aigina. Their union resulted in the birth of Phokos, the first of the seals.